HMP Lowdham Grange: Violence and drug problems persist

Lowdham Grange has been privately run since it opened in 1998

Safety is still a serious concern at a Nottinghamshire prison where three people died within weeks of each other.

Privately run HMP Lowdham Grange also faces issues with drugs, improvised weapons and staff shortages, a new report has said.

The deaths, which came weeks after Serco handed over to Sodexo in February, are being investigated.

Serco said managing the prison in the aftermath of Covid was "highly challenging".

'Negative impact'

Lowdham Grange is a category B prison which housed about 860 inmates in the period covered by the new report.

Since opening in 1998 it had been operated by Serco but this ended in February, with Sodexo Justice Services taking over.

The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) report said this caused a large amount of disruption - due to refurbishment work, staff turnover and uncertainty for inmates.

The report said: "The disruptions caused by these management and staff changes led to inconsistencies in decision-making and actions in the prison and there was evidence that this contributed to the overall negative impact of the impending contract change."

'Inadequate' programmes

Looking at the bulk of the year under Serco, the IMB said safety in the prison had deteriorated, and noted this was the second year running such a judgement had been made.

"This view of 'how safe' is based on the increased number of prisoner-on-prisoner assaults, an increase in prisoner self-harm, and the significant number of weapons finds," the report said.

It also found almost 20% of mandatory drug tests were positive.

The report said: "The failure to provide an adequate number of offending behaviour and drug treatment programmes, restricted full-time work opportunities and a limited education service has compromised the overall progression of many prisoners in their sentences."

Self harm

The board again highlighted delays to inquests following deaths in custody - with four outstanding and the earliest of these relating to mid-2020.

One inquest that was held - for a prisoner who died in 2018, resulted in the coroner issuing a prevention of future deaths notice relating to "serious shortcomings in co-ordination between the various departments in the prison".

After the handover to Sodexco, the report said there were three deaths in custody, currently under investigation by the Prisons & Probation Ombudsman and the police.

In the same period the number of prisoners on a support programme for those at risk of self harm had jumped from 18 to 36.

Highly challenging

Additionally, when the contract change was announced in August 2022, the prison was fully staffed but at the time of writing, the report noted 68 vacancies - with temporary replacement staff not being experienced in category B prisons.

The report did state that prisoners at HMP Lowdham Grange are generally treated fairly and inmates' physical and mental health had been given due attention, but at a lower standard than that available in the community.

There was a small increase of prisoner on prisoner assaults - 124 to 131 - but a sharp drop in prisoner on staff attacks - 79 to 61.

The chair of the Lowdham Grange IMB said: 'The deteriorating situation at Lowdham Grange has caused significant concern to the Board.

"These concerns were compounded by shortages of both prison and healthcare staff.

"Prisoners are also directly released without specialist rehabilitation and resettlement involvement. Despite this catalogue of difficulties, the prison has been told to prepare to take an extra 20 prisoners, some of whom will have to share cells for the first time".

A Serco spokesman said: "Managing HMP Lowdham Grange in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic was highly challenging.

"Additionally, this was the first time that a prison has been transferred from one private company to another and there are no doubt lessons to be learned from everyone involved."

A Sodexo spokesman said: "Since assuming responsibility for the prison in February 2023, we have been focused with healthcare, education and probation delivery partners on the daily operation of running the prison and on delivering the changes agreed as part of the new prison contract."

They added they could not comment on the deaths in custody due to the ongoing investigations.

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